Planar Launches Industry Leading Lampless LED-based Home Projection System

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27-Dec-2009

Beaverton, OR - In September, Planar Systems,
Inc. (NASDAQ:PLNR), a worldwide leader in specialty display solutions,
unveiled its Runco QuantumColor™ Q-750i and Q-750d lampless
LED projectors to Runco's worldwide dealer network. Dealers have
responded very positively and have placed orders for hundreds of
demonstration projectors for their showrooms in the first few weeks
after announcement.

"The QuantumColor projectors mark a new era in video projection
for the industry and for Runco. Lampless LED is the future of video
projection and Runco, through its innovation, is the leader in this
category," stated Planar CEO Gerry
Perkel. "The QuantumColor projectors have it all - no lamp to replace,
never-before-seen colors, high reliability, and low power consumption.
The industry response is strong and our dealers have shown incredible
support for the product by booking orders in record numbers, making the
‘Q' the best-selling demo product in Runco history."

Traditional home theater projectors utilize a lamp for illumination,
which are expensive to replace, cause downtime and only last about
2,000 hours. Collaborating for more than a year with Texas Instrument's® DLP™
business to create the technology for Runco's LED platform, Runco has
engineered its QuantumColor products to eliminate all moving parts in
the engine, including the mechanical iris and color wheel. Runco's
InfiniLight™ also boasts a 70-percent reduction in power consumption, a mercury-free illumination system, and InstantOn™,
which eliminates the need to put the projector in standby mode. These
breakthroughs combine to create an energy-efficient solution with high
reliability.

Beyond light-source innovation, Runco QuantumColor projectors
produce the largest color gamut ever available in front projection;
achieving and exceeding the Society of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers (SMPTE) standard for the first time in home theater front
projection. The QuantumColor projectors offer Runco's Personal Color
Equalizer™ (PCE), which enables owners to create color
settings from the largest pallet ever available and to project images
exactly to their preferences. Runco delivers flawless REC 709 Hollywood cinematic standard, Digital Cinema
Initiatives (DCI) standards, and even the vast Adobe RGB color space.
Runco PCE, which works just like an audio equalizer, allows each color
(red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow) to be dialed up or down
to exactly match an owner's specific taste - a capability never before
available.

To ensure color adjustment doesn't spoil overall image integrity, Runco created its Runco SmartColor™
(RSC) technology to maintain image realism and accuracy. RSC is a
proprietary hue-compensation curve with gamut mapping, which maintains
the integrity and true-to-life representation of flesh tones. Without
this intelligence, flesh tones can look oversaturated, which results in
people who look unnatural or sunburned. The flexibility of this
incredible customizable image has been met with overwhelming positive
response in the custom home theater market who have been using the same
adjustment technique with high-end audio for years.

"Runco has been innovating and changing projection technology for
years," noted Joel Silver, founder and president of the Imaging Science
Foundation (ISF™). "An LED lampless light source is clearly
the next step in front projection, and Runco's innovation in color
gamut and customization puts its QuantumColor projectors well ahead of
the pack."

In addition to debuting its QuantumColor projectors to the entire
custom installation industry at CEDIA EXPO 2009 in September, Runco
demonstrated the Q-750 to media at its headquarters in early November
and at sponsored events in New York, Los Angles, Minneapolis, Denver, and Portland.

Runco's QuantumColor Series Q-750i features integrated video
processing, and the Q-750d is paired with Runco's latest DHD
controller/processor. Both the Runco QuantumColor Q-750i, with an MSRP
of $14,995, and the Q-750d, with an MSRP of $17,995, are now shipping.

Founded
in 1987 and acquired by Planar Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLNR) in 2007,
Runco is a market leader in state-of-the-art projection systems,
flat-panel plasma monitors, video processors and other components for
the custom consumer market. Runco's innovations, including features
that have become essential for the new digital high-definition capable
televisions, have won numerous awards and citations from the world
press. Runco continues to be a pioneer in the custom video display
market. Planar Systems, Inc is a global leader of specialty display
technology providing hardware and software solutions for the world's
most demanding environments including hospitals, space and military
programs, utility and transportation hubs, shopping centers, banks,
government agencies, businesses, and home theaters.